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Mazon (Hebrew for “food”) came to Canada 25 years ago. The organization describes itself as “the Jewish response to hunger.” Its aim is to feed those in need irrespective of background and affiliation. So far it has allocated more than $7 million to food banks and related projects across Canada. Recently it celebrated its silver jubilee with fundraising galas in Toronto and Montreal.

At the Toronto event, the founding chairman of Mazon, Rabbi Arthur Bielfeld, challenged the government to render it and all organizations of its kind obsolete. In reality, however, the need continues to increase multifold. A quarter of a century ago there were 94 food banks in Canada; today there are more than 630.

Citing recent data, Rabbi Bielfeld said that some 900,000 Canadians use food banks every month. Last year more than 150 million pounds of food were distributed to families in need; 38 per cent of recipients were children. This year many will have to make do with less because of growing demand and diminishing resources.

Bielfeld commented: “Little wonder that hunger in this very wealthy country is viewed by many people as a blot on our national character and an international disgrace.”

It’s doubtful if our prime minister would agree. In his warm message printed in the gala program, Stephen Harper commends Mazon for its commitment to alleviate hunger in Canada but is silent about his government’s role in the fight against poverty.

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Perhaps that’s what Rabbi Bielfeld had in mind when he concluded his address with a reference to the Passover meal when Jews invite “all who are hungry to come and eat.”

He urged our federal and provincial governments “to hear that call and put us out of business by ending the obscenity of so much hunger in the midst of plenty.” There’s little to suggest that his call is being heeded.

I was privileged to be a member of the founding committee of Mazon. Even then we debated whether our task was only to raise funds to help food banks and similar bodies or also to see ourselves as advocates and activists.

At the time, we opted for fundraising only. I understood Bielfeld to say that the time has come to do more. In the anti-poverty organizations in which I’ve been involved — be it Ontario’s Interfaith Social Action Reform Coalition (ISARC) or the Out of the Cold program at Holy Blossom Temple — it has been obvious that, as essential as it is to help those in need, ironically, the relative success of such efforts helps governments to get off the hook. At times it even seems that charities find themselves inadvertently colluding with the inaction of politicians.

Defenders of the status quo may remind critics that the state indirectly contributes to voluntary donations through tax receipts. However, this method of assuaging the guilt of the haves deprives have-not recipients of self-esteem and dignity while deepening the social gap that bedevils our society.

It appears, therefore, that paradoxically the many individuals who engage in alleviating poverty may be helping to perpetuate it.

Arthur Bielfeld has also been associated with Campaign 2000, the movement that has its roots in the 1989 all-party House of Commons resolution that looked forward to eliminating child poverty by the turn of the millennium.

It hasn’t happened. In fact, as he reminded his audience, poverty has grown almost exponentially in Canada in the 21st century. That’s also the sense of the latest Campaign 2000 report card. I read it as evidence that all the good work that’s being done is woefully inadequate unless politicians take resolute action now. Gala events, however moving and impressive, aren’t enough.

Dow Marmur is rabbi emeritus at Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple. His column appears every other week.

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